Ted Grant

No Handouts to Bosses - Nationalise Chrysler

[Editor's note: This article was
written in response to plans by the American car firm Chrysler to sack thousands of
workers from the Rootes Group
plants in Britain that it had bought in 1966.]

The Labour Government has just given the multinational Chrysler
bosses a sackful of presents for Christmas, costing up to
£162.5 million. But instead of sharing some of their presents
with the workers, the deal agreed by the Government and Chrysler
has given 8,000 of them—the sack!

Instead of nationalising Chrysler, as even Chrysler boss
Riccardo suggested, the Labour Government has chosen to break
another election Manifesto pledge by doling out more money to prop
up a capitalist firm which has bled millions of pounds from the
workers, without taking any control over its future.

The deal includes sacking 3,000 workers at Linwood, 1,500 at
Coventry Stoke and 1,700 at Coventry Ryton, with another 1,000 at
Ryton and 300 at Stoke to go next year.

Investment

Meanwhile the jobs of thousands of railway workers are
threatened by proposals to slash back railway mileage from 11,000
to 4,000 miles—less than in the 1840s!

The Chrysler crisis is just one more example of the sickness of
British and world capitalism. The capitalist press, as usual, is
trying to present the case as if it is the fault of the workers in
the car industry. Productivity per worker, blurts out the papers,
is only half what it is on the continent.

They do not say that with a lower rate of profit and paying far
higher wages, West Germany's investment is twice as great as that
of the car industry in Britain.

It is investment in new and better machinery which is the secret
of the higher productivity of West Germany, Japan and other rivals
in the car industry over Britain.

In this as in the motorbike and other industries, British
capitalists and Financiers very short-sightedly skimped investment,
making do with antiquated equipment and machinery in order to
increase profits. The City of London Financiers and big business
firms preferred to invest their money abroad in order to gain
greater wealth. Their 'patriotism' is no match for the jingle of
cash.

Even this year in the depth of recession when industry is
working at less than 70% of capacity more than £2,000 million
will be invested abroad, according to official Government figures.
This, while investment in manufacturing industry is falling below
the miserable figures of the last 10 years.

Parasites

Investment overseas, in property speculation and in service
industries, has led to the decline of British industry and the loss
of 1 million jobs in 5 years. One office block in the City of
London is worth more than British Leyland, employing 250,000
people!

Thus the decisive section of the ruling class became speculative
parasites, abandoning the only progressive feature of capitalism in
the past, the development of real wealth producing capacity. They
have forgotten the elementary role of capitalism in their greed for
gain. Not only the motor industry but the entire British industry
is in the same parlous plight.

Big business is now screaming for cuts in manpower, cuts in
living standards, cuts in social services, railways, steel and
practically every industry. Capitalism is responsible for the
crisis in industry, and all the other ills, including the terrible
scourge of unemployment.

Now the capitalists and their Tory puppets in Parliament are
baying for 'lame ducks' to go to the wall. Let Chrysler close down
and add another 50,000 workers in this firm and ancillary firms to
the total on the stones! The accident that Linwood is involved and
the pressure of Scottish Labour has forced the Labour leaders to
abandon this approach. But they cannot save the greater part of
Linwood without saving the Coventry workers as well.

Some of the 'Manifesto' right-wing group are using Tory
arguments in demanding that Chrysler, which is in competition with
state-owned British Leyland, should be allowed to go to the wall.
They point to the queue forming for state aid in critical
industries including, possibly, Vauxhall's and even Ford's.

The Tribunites in Parliament are demanding, as the Manifesto of
the Labour Government promised, that sureties and loans should be
matched by an equivalent share of the equity in Chrysler. This,
surely, is the absolute minimum the Labour Government should have
taken, especially when matched with the sacrifices demanded from
the workers in every industry.

But this is not really even a minimum solution. Chrysler's
should have been nationalised ‑ in this case with no
compensation ‑ and the whole of the motor industry, with
compensation only on the basis of proven need.

They have made super-profits in the last 30 years, far higher
than their competitors and have not re-invested the loot, but
frittered it away on their greedy shareholders. They should be made
to pay the penalty for this neglect, not the workers.

Take over the entire motor industry and rationalise it in the
interests of the workers. Plan production and investment in all the
plants as one entity and one combine. But not on the lines of
bureaucratic nationalisation of steel or the railways, putting the
old bosses in charge.

Workers' control

Industry should be nationalised with workers' control and
management. That means that the members of the top board should be
composed of one third representing the Government, one third
elected by the workers in the industry, through their unions, one
third elected from the TUC. The nominees of the trade unions in the
industry should be subject to recall. All representatives should
receive the wage of a skilled worker, plus legitimate expenses.

With control from top to bottom by the workers, there would be
no sackings, production would leap forward, tapping the initiative
and enthusiasm of the workers. This is the only Socialist solution
in the interests of the car workers and working class as a
whole.